That's the Bag I'm In
It's a SPIDER Bag, maaan!
I moved to North Carolina from Michigan right as the country was starting to shut down for the pandemic in the late winter 2020. I did not move because of the pandemic, my wife and I already had our plan in place. Of course, many parts of that plan were kiboshed (the job I had lined up etc) but the house sold and the job I’d been at for a decade had already found someone new in my role. There was no turning back. Me and that town were done with each other for a long time before the idea of moving even entered my mind. It was time to dive head first into a murky at best look at what the future had in store.
That first summer was pretty much living as a hermit. Our social life consisted of practicing social distancing at jobs we picked up. As 2020 faded out and 2021 came into view, the COVID restrictions and guidelines relaxed slightly. By the time spring of 2021 rolled around, doing things like going to a movie, going out to have a drink, and, the hugest one for me, was being able to go out and see live entertainment again.
The first live show I attended after moving here (aside from a noise/experimental event in the parking lot behind All Day Records in Carrboro) was in the summer of 2021. Spider Bags performed an outdoor gig at the art space PS37 in downtown Durham. Since then, it has become a tradition to see them play somewhere outdoors in the city I call home, usually in July, every year.
As I was preparing this article, I began to wonder if the tradition would continue this year, as I hadn't seen any news about an upcoming show. Post-pandemic, the band has played only a couple shows top each year, leading me to think they might skip 2024. However, I then saw an Instagram post announcing a show at PS37 in August.
So, yes. That tradition will continue for another year (and I may be double dipping downtown as the Obliques are playing their last show before a couple of them head off to their first year of college at the Pinhook that night too.)
The Spider Bags were formed in the mid-oughts after Dan McGee relocated from New York City to North Carolina following the breakup of his band, the DC Snipers. In contrast to the Snipers, who forthrightly nodded to the likes of the Screamers and the Electric Eels, the Spider Bags have had a more down home kinda sound happening throughout their five full-length albums and several 7-inch singles. Despite that bit of earthiness, Dan’s sharp and cynical outlook remains a defining feature in the songs.
Live, the band can sound like Creedence gone krautrock, a ‘luded honkey tonk combo and a very ill-mannered garage rock band. Sometimes they sound like that all at the same time.
I’ve taken photos at every Spider Bags show I’ve been to since moving to NC but most of those scans are stored away very unorganized in another hard drive. That’s a project I’ll attack someday but not today. These photos are from the 2023 show at PS37. The band invited Reese McHenry up to sing for a large portion of their set. Reese is Durham based belter that some lazily compare to Janis but her wailing set of pipes hits a sweet spot more along the lines of Bon Scott. The Spider Bags backed Reese up on her 2017 album Bad Girl.
Gear geek notes. The above black-n-white photos were taken on a Minolta X-370 with its stock standard 50 mm f/1.7 lens. The X-370 was introduced in 1984 as Minolta’s entry level competitor to the Canon AE-1. Other models in the X line were the 500 and 700 which both added more bells and whistles (as well as more metal vs. plastic in its overall construction.) I got my X-370 in high school not too long after they were first out on the market. It was my first “real” camera and also the first one I bought with my own money. This is that same camera. The film stock used was Kodak Tmax 400 which I have written about before.
The color photo below is a few multiple exposure 120 film frames stitched together shot on a Holga 120N using Kodak Portra 400 with a cheap Focal branded flash from the 80s.
As always, no post effects added to these photos. They’re straight from the dev and scan work the fine folks at Memphis Film Lab do.
